1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an appliance for attachment to a bone at a surgery site for promoting healing of the bone following surgery, and in particular to an appliance for covering a recess in the bone which is filled with bone-forming material such as hydroxylapatite granules with a covering membrane which accelerates healing, with a reinforcing ply for the covering membrane.
2. Related Applications
A post-surgery orthopedic covering is described in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 08/188,490 (Kirsch) filed Jan. 28, 1994. The orthopedic covering disclosed therein is for post-surgery treatment of reconstructed bones following plastic surgery or gnathosurgical operations. The covering ensures that the bone-building material will have osseous tissue growing through it essentially only from the side of the covering which faces the bone, but not from the mucous membrane facing the opposite side of the covering, growth from the mucous membrane being undesirable. This ensures that the bone void, recess, flaw or deficiency can be substantially completely eliminated by complete ossification thereof and complete integration of the ingrown osseous tissue with the osseous tissue of the surrounding bone region.
Such a covering membrane, which is preferably composed of absorbable material, is also disclosed in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 08/188,584 (Kirsch) filed Jan. 28, 1994, with the addition of a reinforcing ply for seating the covering membrane tightly against the bone on all sides of the surgery site. Such a reinforcing ply can be secured to the bone, for example, by means of fastening pins as disclosed in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 08/175,967 (Kirsch et al.) filed Dec. 30, 1993. A disadvantage of the use of such fastening pins, however, is that hammering the pins into the bone normally causes pain to the patient, or requires at least local anaesthesia. A further disadvantage is that the pins must be subsequently removed after the bone has healed, and such removal must be carefully undertaken so that complications do not arise. Such removal may again cause pain, or require local anaesthesia.